Comment: Seemingly out of nowhere, Cormier and Lewis were announced as the UFC 230 main event last week. Days after Lewis came through with a come-from-behind third round knockout win over Alexander Volkov at UFC 229, he was given the first title fight opportunity of his UFC career. Out of nowhere because Cormier was said to have been waiting to fight Brock Lesnar early next year, but you can’t fault the man for wanting to get paid. As for how much of a challenge Lewis will provide the champion remains debatable. What is not, however, is his one-punch knockout power (but at heavyweight, don’t most fighters?).

Comment: Khabib also has claim to being the best fighter in the UFC. He earned his 27th consecutive pro win by submitting Conor McGregor to be crowned the undisputed lightweight champion. Unfortunately, he decided to attack Conor’s corner after the fight which turned the dialogue from his incredible performance to a cage-side brawl. For his actions, Khabib has not even been paid his $2 million purse by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Both Nurmagomedv and McGregor have been temporarily suspended (McGregor threw punches at McGregor’s cornermen, too) pending an October 24th hearing when the NAC will determine their punishments.

Khabib is also holding the UFC over a barrel after he claims he will quit the promotion if his friend Zubaira Tukhugov is cut from the promotion. Tukhugov ran into the cage after the UFC 229 main event and sucker punched McGregor. He was scheduled to fight Artem Lobov at a UFC Fight Night show in New Brunswick later this month, but has since been pulled from that card. The UFC has not confirmed Tukhugov’s status one way or another (though Dana White said immediately after UFC 229 that whomever jumped into the cage to attack McGregor would be cut if they were under contract).

Comment: Woodley may very well be the best fighter in the UFC. Last month, he choked out Darren Till in his successful title defense. At welterweight, there does not seem to be a big threat to him, though Colby Covington believes he is the uncrowned champion. After choking out Till, Woodley was awarded his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt by Din Thomas.

Comment: Thankfully, Holloway will return to action before the end of the year. He has been forced out of three fights since January due to a variety of reasons (most recently was “concussion-like symptoms” although that likely does not do a good job of actually describing what happened). After undergoing plenty of tests, he has been cleared to return and will defend the featherweight title against undefeated Ortega in Toronto.

Comment: Dillashaw is trying to dictate his immediate future and as champion, that should provide him a bit more firepower to do so. Whether the UFC sees it that way remains to be seen. Dillashaw wants to move down to 125-pounds to challenge champion Henry Cejudo. The UFC has talked about that fight, but at T.J.’s bantamweight weight of 135-pounds. Dillashaw has no interest in the lighter Cejudo moving up in weight, feeling that if he wins then there will be the natural excuse of a size advantage (does it matter that much since on fight night, weight limits do not matter at all?). Plus, he’s not looking to defend the bantamweight title at all just yet since his rematch win over Cody Garbrandt. He has called for a fight between Dominick Cruz and Marlon Moraes to determine the next challenger.

Comment: With his UFC 229 loss, McGregor suffered his first lightweight loss in the UFC and first since his sixth pro fight back in Ireland. Khabib’s wrestling proved too strong for him, and he was too hesitant instead of the usually aggressive head hunter we typically see. Conor is apparently looking at an immediate rematch, though nothing has been settled until the NAC determines what to do with the pair following the brawl.

Comment: Mousasi decisively finished welterweight champion Rory MacDonald in a defense of his middleweight title. His second round TKO win was his first defense of the Bellator gold. He said he next hopes to fight undefeated contender Rafael Lovato Jr. and Lyoto Machida.

Comment: Ferguson returned to action and earned his 11th consecutive win in a two-round war with former champion Anthony Pettis. If things turn out right, we may finally get to see Ferguson contend for the UFC championship in 2019 against Nurmagomedov. This fight has previously been scheduled about five times and still has yet to come to fruition.

Comment: Bellator’s reigning light heavyweight champion advanced to the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix on Friday with his win over Matt Mitrione. It was a three-round dominant showing as he controlled every minute of the fight and punished his larger opponent en route to the decision win. Next will be a fight with Fedor Emelianenko to determine the new Bellator heavyweight champion.

Comment: Georges has reportedly returned to full health after being hit by ulcerative colitis. As for when he’ll return to the cage, he appears to be waiting on the most attractive option. What that necessarily is, is not yet clear. The most bandied about names have not changed — Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor McGregor, Tyron Woodley.

Closing Comments:

Jon Jones is returning to action in December against Alexander Gustafsson. It will mark the former champion’s return after about 17 months sidelined due to his failure to pass drug tests. He is not ranked on this list because how do you compare his performances in recent years to the likes of the other fighters? Jones literally has failed drug tests in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The only reason he was able to return to action now, is because he took advantage of a UFC anti-doping program policy which allowed him to provide information about another person (or others) to get his own suspension cut short. An MMAJunkie report said Jones must continue to provide information to USADA or he could once again be suspended. At his best/cleanest, Jones is undoubtedly the best fighter in the world and it’s not even close. Not so ironically, the biggest threat to Jones as a fighter is Jon Jones the human being and nobody else. It’s ludicrous that after failing two drug tests for performance enhancing drugs and a third test for cocaine in recent years, he’s being allowed back in and will likely have an opportunity to regain the UFC championship by next summer. A blatant disregard by the promotion for the perception of a cheater having repeated chances is puzzling but the UFC has never been consistent in how they hold fighters accountable.